The Royal House of Niroli Collection. Кейт Хьюит
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don’t want to let things get out of control.’
He let out a sigh and hugged her close. ‘I know you’re frightened, but you don’t need to be. I want you and I intend to have you. Surely you know that by now?’
She leaned back to look up at him, her stomach quivering at the determined promise of his statement. ‘Is that why you’ve been so persistent?’
‘Have I been persistent?’
She gave him a mock-reproving look, desperately trying to maintain a level head when all she wanted to do was throw herself back into his arms. ‘You know you have,’ she said. ‘You just won’t take no for an answer.’
‘Well, can you blame me? As soon as I met you I felt something drop into place, as if a piece of a puzzle had been missing all this time and now I’d suddenly found it.’
She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘So who was the woman who phoned you today?’
‘It was my sister, Megan. She’s backpacking around Europe and wanted to say hi.’
It was impossible to disguise her tiny sigh of relief. ‘She’s lucky to have a brother like you,’ she said.
‘That’s what I keep telling her, but do you think she will listen?’ His smile lit up his eyes.
‘I like you, Alex Hunter,’ she said softly. ‘I really like you.’
‘That’s a start, I guess,’ he said, his dark eyes twinkling. ‘Any chance of an upgrade on that?’
She met his smile with one of her own. ‘Perhaps. I’ll have to think about it.’
‘Well, in the meantime I’ll try and be patient,’ he said and brought his mouth back down to hers.
This time his kiss was even more demanding, the searing thrust of his tongue taking her breath away as his hands skimmed her curves. Her breasts leapt at his touch, even though the fabric of her uniform still covered them. She could feel herself being swept away on the tide of spiralling need that flowed between them. She could feel it in his body, the energy and strength that pulsed there. She could taste it in his kiss, the heat and fire that burned against her mouth as she returned his kiss with fevered urgency. She could feel it in her own body, the ache and throb of unmet needs that refused to be denied any longer.
‘This is crazy,’ Alex said, suddenly pulling away. ‘My timing as usual is way off. I have to be at the palace in ten minutes. That’s not nearly long enough to pleasure you in the way I want to.’
Amelia felt her stomach hollow at his words. ‘We can do this some other time,’ she said, surprising herself more than him. ‘That’s if you still want to…’
He pressed a quick, hard kiss to her mouth. ‘I want to. I’ll be thinking of nothing else the whole time I’m with the king.’
She wrinkled her nose at him. ‘I’m sure he would be very shocked to hear that.’
He smiled down at her. ‘I don’t care if he is. What’s an old man with a medieval castle got to do with me? I’d much rather be with you.’
Amelia decided then to tell him of the rumours. What harm could it do for him to know? At least then he would be able to meet the king’s questions levelly now there was no doubt he was not the prince.
‘Alex…there’s something you should know before you meet the king… Something important.’
Alex frowned at her grave tone. ‘What?’
She took a steadying breath. ‘You’re probably going to think this is ridiculous in the extreme, but there have been rumours circulating on the island ever since you arrived that you are in some way related to the king.’
‘Related?’ His frown deepened.
‘You remember the kidnap and murder of the king’s grandson we discussed the other day?’
He gave a brief nod without responding.
‘Well,’ she said, ‘there’s been a recent disclosure that the infant prince was not in fact murdered as first thought, but spirited away to be brought up by someone else.’
‘Someone else where?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know all the details, just that the prince—according to my sources—was well and truly alive the last time…this person saw him.’
‘So what’s all this got to do with me?’ he asked, his brow still furrowed.
‘At the restaurant last night you were mistaken for someone else. You said it had happened ever since you arrived on the island. I thought you should know that the king as well as others has seen a likeness in your features to his dead son, Antonio, and his surviving grandson, Marco. They’ve been wondering if you are in fact the prince.’
His breath came out in a whooshing rush. ‘Amelia, this island is teeming with male look-alikes. There’s hardly a man here who doesn’t have black hair and brown eyes.’
‘I know… I just thought I should tell you, that’s all. It seemed a little far-fetched to me when I first heard, but then when you said you were adopted and that your Italian name was Alessandro I started to wonder about it myself.’
Alex gave a chuckle of incredulous laughter. ‘Far-fetched? It’s bloody ridiculous! Me? A prince? Don’t make me laugh.’
Amelia started to smile. ‘I guess it does sound a bit crazy, doesn’t it?’
‘Just wait till my sister hears about this.’ He grinned. ‘It’s not every day one gets mistaken for royalty. A mate of mine once got mistaken for a famous actor. He even had to sign autographs as the fans just wouldn’t believe he wasn’t the real deal, but I think this is going one better than that.’
‘I hope you didn’t mind me telling you,’ she said. ‘I just thought it would be better to know about it in case they ask you any personal questions at the palace tonight.’
He dropped a quick kiss to the soft bow of her mouth. ‘You did the right thing telling me. To tell you the truth I was starting to get a little spooked by all the weird looks I was getting. Now I can rest easy.’
So can I, Amelia thought as they made their way out to his car. Thank goodness he was plain old Alex Hunter and not the missing prince….
The fourteenth-century castle was situated on a rocky promontory overlooking the main port of Niroli, the hills behind covered with scented orange groves.
Amelia looked up at it standing so majestically over all it surveyed. The palace had its own private beach and boat houses and the views over the wide horizons were breathtaking. As settings went it was surely one of the most spectacular in the region if not the entire world.
‘Quite some beach house,’ Alex remarked from beside her.
She smiled and took a step backwards as the royal officials approached. ‘I’ll wait for you over there,’ she said, pointing to a sun-drenched terrace where a bougainvillea vine was trailing over the balustrade in a scarlet arras.
Alex gave her a wink and made his way towards the castle entrance flanked on either side by the uniformed officials.
Amelia turned to look at the sea sparkling in the distance, the tang of salt reaching her from below.
She turned about twenty minutes later as she heard the sound of footsteps and watched as Alex walked towards her, a hint of a smile reflected in his dark eyes as they met hers.
‘How was it?’ she asked once they were back in his car.
‘As house calls go it was certainly unusual,’ he said. ‘I met with the king and discussed his treatment options. I spoke to him of the risks involved with a patient his age and how I would be prepared to do it at the private hospital as a one-off in a couple of days.’
‘Did